


Four Strangers

by residentdelinquent



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Apartment AU, F/F, F/M, on my part, this is just a big experiment, youtube au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-03-07 01:42:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3156251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/residentdelinquent/pseuds/residentdelinquent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which the beta kids go from accidental roommates to best friends while becoming YouTube stars along the way. No really that's exactly what happens. This is an AU where if characters show up assume they're human because the game doesn't exist here. I just really wanted an excuse to write the beta kids as adults and without the depressing stuff of the game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In Which A Nonfatal Accident Occurs

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thanks goes out to Song (adreamingsongbird on tumblr) for helping me out with this AU. I hope you all enjoy!

The Four Strangers YouTube channel is run by four very different people who have somehow managed to become best friends. Something that when they started their channel was the last thing they thought would happen.

This is a story of how Dave Strider, Jade Harley, John Egbert, and Rose Lalonde who went from accidental roommates to best friends.

Most of the videos take place in New York City where they all live though some take place in other locations depending on the who was taking the video.

_Dave meets a girl and fail miserably at life_

It had been 3 months, 12 days, and 7 hours since Terezi Pyrope and Dave Strider had broken up.

Dave sometimes really hated being so good at time keeping. He was over Terezi but he could tell you exactly when it happened.

Though usually he was able to forget when the breakup happened after 2 months and 3 days. Don’t ask him why because he has no answer to that.

Maybe he had too much time on his hand making it harder for him to forget.

He really should stop living out of his office in the club and get a new apartment. Having neighbors might be good for him. Maybe some roommates too.

Poor Dave was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t notice the girl in front of him and crashed right into her.

“Shit, I am so sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going and…”

Dave trailed off as he into the bright green eyes of the girl he had just helped up. Eyes that reminded him of jade eyes of the dragon statue that his brother owned.

She smiled widely,

“That’s okay. Are you looking for an apartment? I just finished signing a lease with the help of Ms. Calliope inside.”

Dave felt his mouth twitch. He really wanted to smile at how cute this girl was but it wouldn’t do to ruin his cool kid facade now.

“Actually I was going to talk to my buddy Caliborn about that so no need to worry about me sweetheart.”

His accent had reached the point that he was using the drawl he had had back in Texas.

Unfortunately, even that smooth drawl of his couldn’t save him from the fury of a woman who didnot care for such a term if she wasn’t in a relationship.

She drew herself up as tall as she couldmeaning she only reached up to his shoulders and glared at him.

“I am most definitely not your sweetheart. It’s rude to call me that seeing as how we don’t know each other and we are most definitely not dating.”

Dave could only stare in shock as she stomped off leaving him in front of the office belonging to the Cherub siblings.

Too bad he didn’t manage to get a name and number before making her angry. Looks like he just had found the one girl immune to Strider charm and he would probably never meet her again.

_Rose is offended but refuses to show it_

Rose Lalonde gave Caliborn Cherub a very blank look. Never before had she encountered such a rude man.

Granted he hadn’t tried to hit on her which was a welcome surprise but at the same time his rudeness was quite alarming.

Unfortunately he was the man who was going to become her new landlord.

“Well are you going to sign or not? If not, I’m sure I could easily find someone who wants it more.”

Caliborn leaned back in his seat putting his feet on his desk obviously not caring about how rude he seemed.

Rose sighed lightly.

If she had the option, she would have looked elsewhere but she needed to move into the city as soon as possible if she wanted to prove to her mother that she could live on her own.

“Of course. Here you go.”

Caliborn straightened up, took the lease, and grinned viciously.

“In your face Calliope. I got people to sign on before you did. Your roommate’s my buddy Dave and you better get along with him or else I’m kicking you out. Here’s the key. Move in whenever. Now get out of my office.”

Rose grabbed the key and absconded. The less time spent in Caliborn’s company the better.

_Jade is not happy, not happy at all_

Jade was so excited to be moving into her new apartment.

As a grad student for astrophysics, being able to go to Princeton was a dream come true.

Maybe it would have been easier if she had picked a place closer to campus but living in NYC was also a dream come true.

The city was so different from the island she’d lived on until she was 13. It was alive with people instead of wildlife and it felt amazing.

Jade had already looked up restaurants she wanted to try, the places she wanted to visit, and the shooting range closest to her new apartment.

As Jade bounced up the stairs to her new floor, her thoughts turned towards her new roommate: John Egbert.

The last name Egbert sounded oddly familiar. Maybe he was one of those family members who might have taken her in if Uncle Jake hadn’t decided to do so already.

Oh well. Whatever the case may be, so long as he wasn’t like that idiot who called her sweetheart earlier, it would be fine.

Reaching Apartment 413 in the Sburb building, Jade took out her key and unlocked the door and opened it to see the same jerk from earlier in the day.

“You!”

He looked up in surpriseat least that’s what it seemed like but it’s hard to tell with his shades on before saying,

“Sup, I take it you’re Rose.”

Jade was taken aback. Maybe this wasn’t the same person as this morning. Nope definitely him because who else would wear those stupid shades and was an albino.

“No, I’m not. My name’s Jade not Rose.”

A voice came from behind her,

“And I’m John Egbert and this is Rose Lalonde. You’re obviously Jade Harley and you must be Dave Strider. We’re going to be roommates for the foreseeable future thanks to a mixup with the lease.”

John and Rose came into the apartment behind Jade and as the door closed behind them, they had no idea what was in store for them.

Rose’s amethyst eyes looked on passively as Jade bristled at the thought of having to share her apartment with Dave Strider.

John rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly while Dave’s eyes widened because when he had wanted a change he had not meant this.

The door closed behind them and the accidental roommates stared at each other with no idea what was in store for them.

_John’s turn_

“Hey dad. I moved in safely though I’ve ended up with three roommates instead of just one. There are two girls and one guy: Jade Harley, Rose Lalonde, and Dave Strider.”

John couldn’t believe the day he had just had.

He’d signed a lease expecting to live with only one other person but instead it ended up being a four person lease thanks to Cherub siblings’ mistake and competitive streak.

“I see. And how are you planning on getting to know them?”

Leave it to Dad to make him think about how his plan had been changed.

“I have no idea. At first since my roommate was going to be Jade I was going to go with her to the Museum of Natural History but Dave and Rose are natives to this area so they’re probably not interested in that.”

“Well I definitely think you should go with Jade seeing as how her father and your mother were siblings.”

“Wait are you telling me that Jade’s my cousin?”

John was a bit shocked but how awesome would that be if he was actually related to Jade.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. I would have taken her in if it weren’t for the fact that her uncle on her mother’s side took her in first.”

John immediately opened his door to yell,

“Hey Jade did you know we’re cousins?”

She yelled back,

“I thought we might be related but it’s so awesome that we actually are.”

“Hooray. You two are related. Can you keep it down some people are trying to sleep?”

“What did you say Strider?”

John quickly absconded back to his room before he got caught in the middle of another Harley-Strider argument. That was the fifth one they’d since moving in.

“Sorry dad. I was just telling Jade. Anyways, what should I do to get to know Dave and Rose?”

“Hmm. Well when we wanted to get to know people when I was your age, we talked face to face but I hear video diaries are something people enjoy doing nowadays. Maybe the four of you should make a blog together or something like that. It might bring you all closer if you have an activity like that in common.”

“Dad you are a genius. I love you so much right now. I’ll talk to you tomorrow okay.”

“Okay son. I’m proud of you.”

As John hung up, he couldn’t help but get a heavy feeling in his throat. He had never thought it would be the case but he missed his dad a lot. He shook of the feeling and entered the kitchen.

He found Rose there drinking a cup of tea while reading a biography of H.P. Lovecraft.

“Oh hey Rose. Do you mind getting Dave while I get Jade? I had an idea I wanted to share with everyone.”

Rose carefully marked her place in her book before getting up from her seat.

“Since you were so polite I shall. I take it you also want to get to know your cousin a bit better.”

John grinned,

“Yeah. Thanks Rose. I can tell you’re going to be an awesome roommate already.”

A few minutes, a heated staring contest, a nervous cousin, and an empty teacup later…

“So what’s this grand idea of yours Egbert?”

John smiled widely,

“Since we’re all strangers, why don’t we create a vlog to get to know each other. We can set up a YouTube channel and everything.”

Jade considered the idea,

“That sounds like a lot of fun. I think we should do it.”

“Well, it does seem interesting. I will do it as well.”

Rose did think it would be an interesting experiment at least.

“Eh. Why not? I’m in. Though we’re not calling it something stupid like Accidental Roommates and their Adventures.”

John deflated slightly because he was originally going to suggest that when he was suddenly hit with an idea.

“The four of us are strangers so why don’t we call it The Four Strangers?”

And that is how The Four Strangers YouTube channel came to be.


	2. The Ball Starts Rolling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A whole bunch of introduction stuff but a lot of information is given to make it easier for the next chapter. The ball gets rolling and a few new characters show up and one very important one whose identity is not yet revealed. Guess who it is? More will be revealed in the next chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took forever but it's still better than some of my other stories. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Also some of section intros are long and ridiculous.

             _Breakfast is Served_

Waking up to the smell of pancakes was an odd feeling. Only one of them was used to an actual breakfast and it was the cook.

Jade smiled to herself. It was starting to look like a good day already. She had slept in until 8 and getting breakfast soon after waking up was nice.

Rose was pleasantly surprised by the smell and groggily sat up in bed. It looked like one of her new roommates actually knew how to cook breakfast foods. Now Mother couldn’t say anything about Rose starving and that her younger daughter should come home.

Dave smelled food. Actual food. He slowly drifted towards the kitchen where the scent was coming from. The last time Dave had an actual breakfast was when Dirk still lived with him and Bro.

John hummed to himself as he flipped the last pancake. He had easily made enough for all of them to have at least three pancakes. After all good food is one way to help break the ice.

John took his gigantic stack of pancakes and put it in the middle of table. He then went to get plates and utensils.

“John. Would you be so kind to move so that I may make myself some tea?”

“Huh, oh sure Rose. Do you want some pancakes? I made a whole bunch for everyone.”

John had to keep himself from laughing at Rose. Just by looking at her, John knew that she was not a morning person.

No matter how articulate she was on a normal basis, Rose Lalonde was nowhere near functioning level. Her platinum blonde hair was a disaster, she had dark circles under her eyes, and she was moving like a zombie.

It got even better when Dave stumbled in and just sat down at the table. His red eyes showed confusion.

John was having an even harder time keeping his laughter in as he looked at Dave’s glazed over eyes.

The funniest part was when Jade bounced in.

“Good morning everyone! Thanks for the breakfast John.”

John started laughing softly as he gave Dave the coffee pot and a mug.

Maybe coffee would wake up the zombie.

Jade decided to be helpful and got out the maple syrup along with cream and sugar in case Dave wanted some.

It turned out that he wanted a lot of both.

Jade who drank black coffee just shook her head and dug into her pancakes.

Rose and Dave were enjoying actually having breakfast with every intention of going back to sleep when the peace was disturbed by John and Jade jumping up and pointing at each other.

“You’re my cousin!”

Jade moved over to where John was and they both clasped hands and started jumping up and down in excitement.

Rose and Dave exchanged a look, nodded, grabbed their plate and drink, and high tailed it back to their rooms.

Being awake in the mornings might be contagious and that was not something either of them wanted.

“Oh, I have so many stories to tell you about Uncle Jake.”

“And I need to tell you all about Dad Squared and Jane. Jane’s our cousin and my technical half-sister.”

“But wait, if we’re cousins, then why didn’t we know this earlier? Uncle Jake is so going to get it from me. Grrr.”

John just sighed,

“I can tell you why Dad never told me. He forgot because and I’m quoting him from the multiple times he’s done something like this,

‘Well son, sometimes this old brain of mine just isn’t as sharp as it once was. Of course I forgot to tell you. You didn’t remind me to do so in the first place.’

And I just have to accept it because he gets all huffy about it and complains to Dad Crocker about how his son’s going through his rebellious phase.”

Jade’s eyes had become wide as she imagined and older John looking man wearing a fedora and saying exactly that. (John’s voice was very descriptive.)

“Wow. Wait. Who’s Dad Crocker?”

John was blindsided before remembering that there was no way Jade could know about Dad Crocker.

“Dad Crocker is Dad’s identical brother who he was separated from at birth. It’s a long complicated story that even I still don’t understand fully. Jane can probably explain it better than I can.”

“Okay dokey. You’ll have to take me to meet everyone sometime. I’ll introduce you to Uncle Jake when he gets back! He’s on a dig right now but he should be back when the semester starts.”

“Cool. Anyways I’m going to get started on my video. I’ve put a basic idea for how to make it. I can upload them and we might even become YouTube famous! How awesome would that be?”

Jade who was already excited about the idea felt her grin become wider. This was going to be so much fun.

            _Rose and Jade Bond_

Rose finally woke up at 10.

She almost went back to sleep but decided that waking up early once in a while couldn’t hurt.

~~More like all the time because Jade and John no longer let Rose or Dave sleep past 10:30.~~

She made sure that she looked presentable before leaving her room and walking down the hall away from the bedrooms.

Rose didn’t have to go to work yet because it was only Saturday and she didn’t start working until Monday.

Rose remembered that she needed to ask if her roommates would be okay with a cat. If they were then maybe she could bring Mutie here.

“Rose! You’re up!”

“Ah, Jade. I see you’re working on your video.”

“I already finished it. John’s given me access to the account and the email he set up so that we can upload them on our own.”

“Did John give anymore instructions about the videos? I’m not entirely sure what my videos should be about. I haven’t given them much thought.”

“Well, I’m making my videos about the adventures I’m going to go on while I’m in the city. I’ve never been to New York before so I’m going to have fun exploring it and making videos about it.”

“And what do you plan to do when you run out of adventures?”

“Oh that’ll never happen. A person can find adventure wherever they go if they just know how to find it. Uncle Jake taught me how and he’s the best adventurer ever.”

Rose blinked to clear her mind from the enthusiasm she was just exposed to.

She was vaguely reminded of her older sister Roxy who smiled a lot the way Jade did.

Jade would probably get along with Roxy though it was slightly scary to think what might happen if those two met.

“I see. Have you seen John and Dave since breakfast?”

Jade shrugged,

“John said he had to get to work and a while ago Dave ran out mumbling something. He’s so weird.”

Under her breath, Rose mumbled,

“A roommate who works on Saturdays, another one who seems distant, a cheerful girl who still knows how to dream, and me. We’re going to have some interesting things happen.”

Rose had a feeling that the weirdness surrounding the group was only just starting.

            _This Whole Mess is Dirk’s Fault_

“I was gone for all of one day and this is what I come back to. Just what the hell were y’ll up to last night.”

Dave was not happy to see the mess that had been made of his club.

A mess meant looking through the reports from last night and looking through the reports usually meant more paperwork to be done and there was already enough of that.

“Sorry boss. Eridan had classes last night and the substitute bartender didn’t show. I had to put one of the new workers out there. The new workers are also fucking idiots. Where did you find them?”

Cronus was very lucky that Dave decided not to lower his shades and look Cronus in the eyes.

Dave’s eyes had always been a powerful weapon against others starting from a young age. He originally used them to scare the old lady who would always call him the devil’s spawn just because of them.

Cronus obviously realized this and was quick to start working on making sure everything would be ready in time for opening.

Honestly whose bright idea was it to let Dave run a club? Oh wait, it was Dirk’s for buying the place and then not having the time to actually run it.

“Cronus, do me a favor buddy and put out an ad for a new bartender. If Eridan ain’t gonna be working every night we should at least have someone who knows what they’re doing.”

“Sure thing boss. I’ll get right to it. Also could you talk to them new workers? They have no idea what they’re doing and I’m tired of fixing their damn messes.”

“They had better figure out what they’re doing soon or their asses are going to get fired.”

At least Dave had finished the video and given it to John. One less thing to worry about.

            _Let’s Get This Party Started_

John was really excited about this.

Everyone had uploaded the introduction videos which meant they could start doing their own things.

The plan was that everyone would watch the videos on their own time and they’d figure out how to more together as time went on.

John remembered that he needed to contact Jane to see if she’d be okay with him bringing Jade over soon.

The sooner those two met the better. John just knew that Jane would love Jade and adopt her into the family as an actual family member instead of a cousin they had just learned about.

He quickly took out his phone and texted Jane Crocker. She’d probably reply in the morning and he could take Jade to the bakery when Jane got back from visiting Dad Squared.

John leaned back in his seat and stretched.

“Whelp, it’s time to sleep. I have work again tomorrow and simulations for training are going to start soon.”

            _Shadowy Figure Subscribes. Plot Twist: Internet Fame is Coming_

“If you watched this video all the way, you should also watch my roommates’ videos so you can get a better idea about what we’re doing with this channel. Thanks again for watching and if you’d subscribe that would be awesome.”

As the video ended, The Four Strangers got a very important subscriber. This one subscription would launch them into Internet fame. Something the four accidental roommates had never really considered.

The shadowy figure of this important subscriber turned off his computer after hitting the subscribe button.

He mumbled to himself,

“This either going to be fucking interesting or it’s going to be a fucking train wreck. Either way it promises to be hilarious.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment to tell me what you think and I'm always open to ideas for future chapters.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](http://desikauwa.tumblr.com/)


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